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| Small, $2 retaining wall concrete block |
So I went to Lowes planning on buying 36 of these blocks. They are four inches tall by 12 inches wide. Two abreast they would stack up to six feet in height, which is what we need. I am hefting these blocks as I stack them on the shopping cart and I'm thinking they are five, maybe ten pounds each. I know I have a hard time gauging how heavy things are. If I can pick it up, it's light, if I can't, it's heavy. Along about the time I've got two dozen loaded on the cart I glance up at the label and notice that each one of these blocks weighs 24 pounds. That's a different kettle of fish. I decide that maybe I ought to do this in two lots. I don't want to load the cart up so much that it becomes unpushable. I'm loading the blocks in the trunk and I'm calculating just how much 27 blocks weigh (650 pounds) and I think maybe I should load some of these in the back seat so the tail end isn't dragging on the ground and that's when I notice that the right rear tire is looking a little low. Very low, actually. So I decide I should deal with that first, so I drive home, fire up the air compressor, pump up the tire and drive to the new house.
Osmany showed up a few minutes later and we unloaded the blocks. He carries four at a time down the stairs. I head to Lowes to pick up the rest of the concrete blocks and some three inch plastic pipe and fittings so we can redo the rain drain so it is below grade.
I also pick up a roll of tape. One of the joints in the old rain drain was put together with some kind of plastic tape. The joint is still secure after 40 years (presumably), so that must be some pretty special tape. It looks and feels just like the plastic used in contractor's trash bags. Looking in the pipe goop section I find two kinds of tape. One is sold out, so I buy one of the other.
Now that Osmany is supplied, I can go to Les Schwab to get the leaking tire fixed. It takes them awhile but that's okay, I've got Master and Commander with me so I am glad it takes them a while. Then they tell me that my tires are bad and should be replaced. I vaguely remember hearing something about that the last time I was there, and they only want to replace two tires for a hundred bucks each so I say go ahead.
Now I head over to Jack's house to borrow a hydraulic jack and he shows me something amazing.
Jack pushing magnets around on his welding table
2 comments:
That Osmany is a show off - lol. Like you, if I can lift it, it is light: if not, it is heavy. I did a weight (back of envelope) for generic cured concrete to come up with 33 pounds/block; but, I'm sure that Lowe's supplier knows what mix they used.
When I go to Lowe's, I only buy 10 at a time. Still, you make me feel a bit better about my own strength. As an old, old woman I won't feel so badly, when I sit to pant after moving those blocks about in my yard. (I stacked a couple of dozen of them under my back porch to use, as needed.)
It sounds like you are making progress!
The concrete in the blocks is kind of granular, like you see in cinder blocks. They shed lots of little bits. They are not like the solid concrete you see in poured driveways and foundations. Plus they are not perfect rectangles, more like trapezoids.
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